Board weighs changes to downtown parking rules and stormwater thresholds to help small businesses

Planning staff told the Milton Planning Board that parking and city stormwater rules in the downtown RC1 zoning district can make it difficult and costly for small commercial expansions, and the board asked staff to study targeted changes and return with recommendations.

The issue matters because downtown lots are smaller and more constrained than general commercial parcels, and current thresholds for stormwater waivers and management plans can force small projects to hire engineers and build costly retention measures.

Tim Milstead, Planning Director, reviewed the relevant code and said the city's stormwater-waiver language limits waivers "to those developments which limit the increase in impervious surfaces…